If RR had gone to Bama, and IF he'd have engaged in the same "massive oversigning followed by deliberate attrition" game that Saban played, I believe he, too, would have made them a national power by now. Heck, if he could have gone the oversigning route in 2008 and '09, I think we'd have been a lot better this year, too. But our standards are a little different.

this is saban's third year and he's going to win the national championship.

just saying.

on a side note, what does that tell you about the michigan state program, where from 1995-1999 the best nick saban could do was a citrus bowl appearance. if even he couldnt do more, whats the odds that dantonio can?

including Alabama, are without their weaknesses. Alabama barely got by Auburn one week and crushes Florida the next. Who is to say which Bama team shows up in a month?
I agree that TCU has looked better than Texas. Cinci and Boise could play an excellent "I can't see any reason to bring our defense to this game" game. Texas could play Florida in the "If I don't hit the mute button, to avoid listening to the announcers man crush on everything Tebow/McCoy, I will have to rip my ears off" game.
TCU vs Alabama for the crystal.

If only there was some way that more than two teams could participate in a tournament system that legitimized the winner more than a game played between two out of more than 100 teams that don't play enough regular season games to truly determine a champion. A "play-off", if you will, that would include several deserving teams so as to not exclude multiple undefeated teams and the various conference champions. A brief postseason that allowed us to say "Yes, this is truly our national champion."

Aw, screw it, let's just do Big 12-SEC in the BCS til the end of time, that'll make the fans happy!

I think that Texas is the most deserving out of the two (Texas & TCU). It wasn't so much that they didn't look impressive tonight as it was the fact that Bo Pelini is a great defensive mind. Their whole team played an excellent defensive game that would have given anyone fits. I think that Alabama wins that game but predict it to be better/closer than people think. I just can't hand Alabama the title just for beating an overated Florida team but they did look really good and deserve to be the favorite going in.

I completely agree. I don't understand why Boise isn't in this conversation. I think that if they had scheduled Oregon for late season and had the same results there would be serious talks of having an Alabama-Boise State championship game.

I had been thinking that TCU should get the nod as well after watching Texas squeak by Nebraska, but then I looked at their results from the whole season, and I'm not so sure TCU has really "looked better" than Texas all year.

Now, I'll admit up front that I haven't had the chance to watch too much of either team this year, and if someone who has watched them play a number of games wants to tell me that TCU looks like the better team on the eyeball test, I'm happy to differ.

But just looking at their results, Texas has two squeaker wins against Nebraska and Oklahoma, with another two relatively close games (10 points) against Texas Tech and Texas A&M. Their other 8 wins were by 24 points or more.

TCU has two squeaker wins against Clemson and Air Force, and a close game against Virgina (6 points). There other 9 games were by 24 points or more.

I'm not saying that Texas's results are definitively better than TCU's, just that those results are pretty comparable. Which leads me to wonder if all the "TCU has just looked better" talk is mainly about expectations. We all expected Texas to roll through everyone in the Big 12, so a few close games made them look bad. Conversely, no one really saw TCU coming too much, so their close games don't look bad, and their blow outs look impressive.

I'd be fine either either team making the championship game, and I don't like the idea that Texas should be voted in simply because they're currently ranked higher. But looking at their results, I think Texas might get my vote even after tonight's (admittedly pretty bad) performance.

I would love to see Cicni get a chance. The don't play much D, but I would love to see Bama have to beat a team with a good offense. They did play Arkansas early in the year, but since have not played any really good offensive teams. Personally I don't feel that UF is that good on offense without a Harvey like player in the slot/RB position. I live in SEC country and I hate hearing how good Bama's D is. They may be all that for all that I know, but I would like to see them have to show it.

Everyone here is having a knee jerk reaction to this game. For a comparison of resumes, see The Tater's excellent write up above. Texas and TCU are fairly even, with Texas, I feel, having more quality wins and playing an overall tougher schedule. Tonight, they played a great Nebraska defense with an excellent defensive mind leading them. Texas played tight tonight, but they rolled good teams like Oklahoma State and Missouri on the road, and beat rival bowl-eligible teams like Texas Tech or Texas A&M.

TCU has had a great season too, don't get me wrong. But the knee jerk reaction to one bad game, that Texas still won, is disappointing from a fan base who usually does their research.

I don't know how anyone can say that Texas's resume is more impressive than TCU's.

TCU beat BYU (@ BYU) 38-7. BYU is more highly ranked than anyone Texas has faced. TCU also beat Utah (another ranked team) 55-28. Not to mention BYU beat a Clemson team on the road that was 5 points away from being the ACC champs.

Texas on the other hand has absolutely no impressive wins other than Oklahoma State. And in the games that mattered most (Texas A&M and Nebraska) Texas did win, but clearly showed they do not belong in the NC game.

This is why preseason rankings need to be tossed. Doing that is a first step in the right direction. Start ranking maybe after Week 4, then start BCS ranking after week 8. Its damn near impossible for a team like BSU or Cincy to climb into the top seat.
Large errors include Oklahoma at #3, USC at #4. BSU was 20 and Cincy was #32.

Altogether there were 8 teams in the preseason top25 that are not in the latest poll.

I think it's hard to make a case for teams like this to play in the championship when there are teams from better conferences with the same record as them. I think that Texas deserves to make the championship this year, but if teams like Boise and TCU start to schedule one or two big-time non-conference opponents each year, they should make it to the big game eventually if they win out. Boise scheduled Oregon this year and won, but it was early in the season so I think a lot of people thought it was a fluke. If one of these teams could schedule a game like that later in the season, they should have a good shot.

I think you can make a case for any scenario of Alabama, Boise St, Tejas, TCU, and Cincy. At some point in the season, all of these teams looked fantastic, and at other points, they all looked very beatable. Alabama gets a free pass for playing in the most over-hyped conference in the country. They struggled against two terrible teams: Tennessee and Auburn. Granted they beat Florida, but the BCS Championship game is an assessment of the entire portfolio, not just a victory over the fighting Tebows.

In the end, I think it will be a great game between Alabama and Tejas. For how much Alabama played out of their minds yesterday, I think Nebraska did the same. I expect a very equally matched game for the championship with the nod going to Tejas. And, post-game, there will be the annual requisite of other undefeated BCS bowl game winners crying foul for not being included in the hunt. The exception to this year is that rather than one team complaining, up to three could be - and they all have genuine cases. Stupid BCS.

tcu go to the MNC, win it, and destroy the BCS, let's hope that boise, cinci & tcu all get matched up with AQs and then all win. it would make me so happy because it would be the beginning of the end for the BCS